Monday, 25 November 2013

Determining the order of candidates on the ballot paper for 2014 Presidential and provincial Council Elections 25th November 2013.

The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) today determined, through a lottery system, the order of the candidates appearing on the ballot papers for next year’s Presidential and Provincial Council elections, slated for 5 April, at a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Eleven Presidential and 2,713 Provincial Council candidates, some of whom were present at today’s event, are contesting the polls. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA! ) is mandated to support – at the request of the Afghan authorities – the Afghan-managed and Afghan-led election. Last week, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš, urged Afghan electoral and state bodies, and the candidates and their teams, to take all measures to ensure the election process and their conduct are marked by “the highest degree of integrity, free from internal and external interference and fraud.”